Group looks to spread awareness of mental health issues
Clark County consortium gathers to commemorate special day
By ERIKA BAYER-POLAK VIEW STAFF WRITER
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Members of the Clark County Children's Mental Health Consortium gathered at the West Neighborhood Family Service Center, 6171 W. Charleston Blvd., May 8, to commemorate the Clark County Board of Commissioners proclaiming the day as Children's Mental Health Awareness Day.
The consortium was established in 2001 by the Nevada Legislature. The legislation created a consortia for Washoe County and for rural Nevada, as well. It was created to study, assess and to help meet the needs of children with mental health issues.
Natalie Filipic, family support services director of Nevada Parents Encouraging Parents and a parent of a son with a mental health illness, shared her experiences and frustrations during the May 8 assembly.
"I kept being told, 'Nothing is wrong with your child,' because he wasn't getting into trouble," Filipic said. "But I knew there was something wrong. He wasn't sleeping or eating, he was in another world. As a parent, I was hollering for help, talking to everyone I could, and it was getting us nowhere. And parents of children with a mental health illness are made to feel like it's their fault, and you're asked, 'What did you do to cause this?' That keeps a lot of us very quiet."
Filipic said her son Mark, now 20, hears voices and experiences visual hallucinations. She said he suffers from a psychoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with only after Las Vegas police were called to his school.
"Metro came to my door and told me I had to go down to the high school. They wouldn't tell me what happened," Filipic said. "He tried going to his counselor, but the door was closed. They found him in a catatonic state in the fetal position in front of the counselor's door."
Filipic said the voices Mark was hearing told him to kill his mother in her sleep, and Mark did not want to go home with his mother because he was afraid of what could happen. And Filipic was concerned about taking her son home with her.
"He's a high school kid, he's bigger than me and stronger than me, and his voices are telling him to kill me," she said.
With the aid of the school and other professionals, Filipic took Mark to Desert Willow Treatment Center, a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. At the center, Mark received the treatment he needed and began taking medications that helped keep his disorders under control.
The Clark County Children's Mental Health Consortium has found that "31 percent of Clark County's high school students screened for behavioral health problems were identified at risk for suicide and in need of behavioral health services," Karen Taycher, the group's chair, said during the assembly.
She also noted that "85.3 percent of abused/neglected children and 79 percent of juvenile offenders in Clark County need some level of behavioral health services. And more than 70 percent of Clark County's children who need early access to mental health services are not able to access them. Lack of early access to services seems to result in many children unnecessarily entering the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems."
Filipic said the resources available to parents who are seeking help for their children need to be improved, but she has seen some improvement in the last few years.
"Nevada PEP (Parents Encouraging Parents) offers help," Filipic said. "We help parents who have children with severe emotional problems and the neighborhood care centers offer the help that a lot of parents look for, and there are five care centers in Las Vegas. When we went to the service center, everything turned around. We had the team of resources we needed."
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